Post 28

A good person is kind, generous, loving, caring, humble, polite, smart, they are consistent with all of these traits ultimately makes them a good person. Being a good person is not that difficult to do.  Respecting others and their values is at the top of the values you have to do.  The golden rule also is important to being a good person "treat others the way you want to be treated." The goodness in a person is ultimately defined by the actions a person demonstrates.  Being a good person as a whole is difficult, for example, when Antigone defies Creon and buries her brother anyway, that is with a doubt an act of goodness, but she commits suicide at the end of the play so I would not consider her a good person as a whole. What I am trying to get at is that people are capable of doing good acts, but are ultimately good people in the long run.  I believe that is what are text gets at in all of the stories in this section, from Antigone, A Good Man is Hard to Find, and Good People.  Ultimately they all demonstrate good acts, but are not perfect, good people.

Post 27

First things first, what Antigone does in terms of giving her brother a proper burial is very respectable and a very good trait.  She is an integral part of helping over the king;however, in order to accomplish that she kills herself.  Suicide is arguably one of the most selfish acts a person can commit it taking their own life.  Due to her committing suicide I do not consider her to be a good person.  It does not solve anything positively.  I realize that this brought on the demise of the king, but she is not there to experience his downfall. There is no way that fame can be enjoyed if you are not alive to experience it. This is a prime example as to why Antigone committing suicide is a bad thing and does not make her a good person what so ever. The fact that she betrayed the king is a very heroic trait and should be admired by anyone, including me.  As you can tell I have a very strong opinion on this matter, but suicide is not a good thing and it never will be under any circumstances.

Post 26

I think at the beginning of this short story, Lane Dean Jr. is a devout Christian and that is undoubtedly what he bases his life around.  I think Lane believes that at the beginning of the story believes that being a good person revolves completely around how devout in your faith you are, in other words, living by the book of being a Christian.  They have done a deed, by Christian standards, is very sinful.  Him and his girlfriend got pregnant out of wedlock which is something that is very frowned upon.  In my opinion, at the end of the story his definition of a good person changes, I think he lets religion take over too much of who he is.  He is more worried about what the church will think of him, rather than doing what is right and that is standing by this girl and their unborn child. This is my opinion and I could be wrong, but I feel that no matter what he needs to own up to his "mistake" instead of hide from it.

Post 25

A Good Man is Hard to Find is not only the title of this short story but a statement that can reign true in the world today.  This story blurs the definition of good abundantly and ultimately the label good loses its meaning completely.  The grandmother first uses the definition good with the character Red Sammy in that instance good seems to mean gullibility, poor judgement and blind faith.  The other label of good is towards Misfit when she calls him a good man while pleading for her life.

One character that is more good than all the rest of the characters is Bailey because of the bravery he displays in trying to talk to Misfit about killing them.  He also tries to keep his grandmother quiet meaning he is level headed.  He is good because he understands what is happening and keeping his cool.  The end of the story when Misfit says "She would of been a good woman . . . if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life"? He is saying that she is only a good person when she is put in a tough spot and not all the time, in other words, she is a fake.

Post 24

Hoffman, M. (Director). (14 april 1999). A Midsummer Night's Dream [Motion picture on Online].

I watched this movie on YouTube

 

The differences between "A Midsummer Night's Dream" the written play and the movie are quite abundant.  The differences I have found between the play and the movie by Michael Hoffman are in the book Oberon curses Titania in order to acquire her Indian page. Before releasing her, he reveals to Puck that his plan succeeded; however, in the movie Oberon begins with the same intentions, all mention of the Indian page is dropped after the initial confrontation and is never resolved. In the play it is never mentioned that Bottom is married, but in the movie itself it is shown that Bottom hides from his "angry wife".  In the play, the mechanicals first meet in Peter Quince's house to cast their play. In the movie; however, they meet in a public area where Bottom is humiliated by a set of children. His spirit is damaged and Quince insists that they rehearse in the forest to be not seen.
You never truly know why directors of movies change things when they make a film that is based on a work of literature.  They can do it for time reasons, cutting things out are important so they can avoid really long productions. In this movie, I believe things were changed to make the audience wonder, when Oberon's confrontation is not resolve which gives the audience the ability to piece things together on their own. The other two examples I used are pretty puzzling as far as why the director did them.  I could not figure out why he gave Bottom a wife in the play, or why he changed the setting of the place to cast the play.  It could be just to put his own spin on things, but it is hard to truly know.                                                  

Post 23

The character I have decided that is the best option for the protagonist in this play that has an abundance of characters and plot lines is Puck.  He is a mischievous, quick witted character that sets many of the play's events in motion with his magic.  He does this pulling his deliberate on human characters by transforming Bottom's head into an ass and his unfortunate mistakes by smearing the love potion on Lysander's eyelids instead of Demetrius's. Another large reason as to why he is the protagonist is his fun-loving humor, and lovely, evocative language that set the tone of this play. This play is dominated by the exact things that his character is portrays.  He is graceful but not as graceful as the other fairies which helps him stand out.  Most people would depict a fairy as a beautiful elegant creature, Puck is not that at all which also helps him stand out.  He is referred to as a "hobogoblin" at one point in the play which is not anywhere related to the term of  "fairy."

Post 22

There are a nice amount of connection made between "Death of a Salesman" and "Those Winter Sundays." The father/son relationships in each piece is quite close to one another in the fact that both of the fathers are portrayed as hard working men. It is clear that the son, who is the speaker of this poem, does not do much to help his father provide for the family.  He also does not share the same aspirations as his father, and he speaks indifferently to his father.  This compares to Biff in Death of a Salesman, he does not speak indifferently to his dad, but is obvious they do not share the same desires. Another connection that takes place in both is that the love the father's have for their children.  Even though Biff and Willy have their differences Willy truly loved Biff and took his life just so Biff could get ahead in life.  The father of the poem also loves his son as seen in the hard work he puts forth every day to take care of him and his family. A personal experience I can share with these two works is that my father loves me very much and wants what is best for me and I am very fortunate for this.  He has showed me what hard work is and the right way to provide for a family, it is something I will carry with me forever and  like I said I am very grateful for this.  The story that I compare the relationships to is "Boys and Girls" that we read earlier in this course.  The parents clearly love their daughter but do not necessarily show it very much.  Especially when she is confused about where her life is going in terms of her place in the home.  A movie that stands out to me in which the father and son have a different relationship is a movie entitled "The Rookie" starring Dennis Quaid.  Throughout the movie him and his father struggle to form a bond because of the hardships they went through in his childhood, but ultimately they find a deeper connection with one another.

Post 21

Success can be a extremely broad definition in today's world.  In the drama "Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller salesman, Willy spends is life yearning to be a successful salesman and to achieve the "American Dream."  I believe that the ultimate problem with Willy in this story is that his definition of being a good business man is bad.  His definition is that you have to be well-liked in order to succeed in the business world.  He is so entrenched in these misunderstood beliefs that it leads to his demise.  His whole life is a lie, and he falls deeper and deeper into this lie until there is no way out.  In my opinion, Willy's biggest fault is that he lies to himself which causes him to do poorly in other aspects of his life.  Some people are simply not good at what they do (like Willy), but they make up for it by being a good husband, wife, father or mother. Success isn't always determined by your status in your occupation and Willy cannot grasp this. The other part of the problem in this story and possibly even in the United States is that the term "American Dream" is overused.  People make it seem like if you work hard you're guaranteed success in the business world or whichever endeavor you take part in.  Unfortunately, that isn't the case what so ever, people get hung out to dry in the world every day.  

Journal 20

The differences in the two women posed in this drama are very obvious at the beginning of the play.  Mrs. Peters is the wife of the sheriff and she feels it is her duty to uphold the male definition of the duty of law.  On the other hand Mrs. Hale is much more sympathetic towards Mrs. Wright's situation and takes part of the blame because she did not visit or contribute to Mrs. Wright's lonely life.  Towards the end of the play Mrs. Peters overcomes her suspicion and decides to empathize with Mrs. Wright who values her own needs rather than be consumed in the identity of her marriage.

The most important character in this play is undoubtedly Mrs. Peters.  I believe that the author places her in there because women need to evolve in terms of being more independent (at the time she wrote this play) and thinking on their own rather than basing their identity off of who their husband is.  I think that ultimately, she noticed that Mrs. Hale was being independent and she decided that she needed to as well.  I assume that this play, if delved into, made strides in the feminism movement of this time period.

Journal 19

For this journal entry I dug into the egregious amount of pop music I listened to in high school and came up with a very good song that uses multiple similes throughout it.  The song I have chosen is "Diamonds," by  Rhianna.  As I said it uses two simile in the song that and I will discuss both of them. The first simile that appears multiple times throughout the song is "You and I are like  Diamonds." This seemingly is comparing herself and another companion (friend, boyfriend, etc.) to diamonds meaning they are worth a lot to her and are something to be proud of. This simile is played many times throughout the song so it reiterated over and over again.  The second simile that is played frequently is "Shine bright like a Diamond." It is repeated more than the other one and it is saying that you as a person need to shine; however you shine best.  Be unique, be yourself, be who you are.  It is a very powerful song, by a very powerful artist.

Journal 18

The poem I have decided to analyze for this post is entitled," This Is Just to Say." The author is not listed in the book. This poem is very short, but the short length of this poem leaves the door open for it to have many different meanings.  The most peculiar part of the poem is the word this is in the title  I believe that the meaning of the word could be the poem itself.  The person who ate the plums in the ice box is using poetry to tell people she ate them.  I enjoyed this poem because it was a nice easy poem that was not too difficult to understand.  The author stole someones breakfast and used poetry to take some tension off of the situation.  Overall, it was a nice piece of poetry!

Journal 17

I chose the poem "Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane" by Etheridge Knight.  The speaker appears to be a male that is in prison judging by the title because they are returning "Hard Rock" back to jail from the hospital.  The speaker is telling a story about how he how crazy Hard Rock is he is not addressing anyone in particular.  The speakers attitude, as well as their tone is rather intense.   In the second stanza he capitalizes WORD to emphasize that what he had had heard was that the Hard Rock didn't take any guff from anyone.  The setting of this poem is obviously in prison and I believe that the time is in the 1950s or so.  The two clues I discovered that point to this are the use of the N word multiple times in the poem it was extremely prevalent at that time period.  The second clue was the Hospital for the criminally insane places like that are not titled that anymore, but they were in that time period.  The tone changes throughout this poem at first the author is very intense and excited about the prospect of seeing this so called psycho path in action.  You can tell he is intense by the capitalization of "WORD" twice in the second stanza.  After realizing that he had changed and mellowed out they become disappointed. "And we turned away, our eyes to the ground. Crushed." The theme of this poem, in me opinion, is that people are capable of change no matter who they are.  It is said at the beginning of this poem that Hard Rock had a record for days in the hole because he was so mean and hot tempered, but at the end of the poem he had mellowed out and seemingly learned to control his anger.

Journal 16

In the poem "Home Burial" by Robert Frost grief and death are characterized in completely different ways.  The wife is more of the belief that she needs to be visibly upset for basically the remainder of her life, while the husband grieves in a different way and is over it much faster.  The excerpt that caught my eye that really separates each side of grief is between lines 70 and 74.  "A man can't speak of his own child that's dead..You can's because you don't know how to speak.  If you had any feelings, you that dug With your own hand--how could you?-- his little grave; I saw you from that very window there."  To me this portrays to very different sides of how each of these people are handling their feelings of their dead child.  The mother wants absolutely nothing to do with the thought the child because it brings her too much sadness. The father; however, is dealing with it in a much more positive way.  It is hard to tell if the two different ways that they are dealing with grief are equal or one is stronger than the other throughout most of the story.  The last few lines of the poem make me believe that they are equal when she is threatening to leave, "If - You-Do!" She was opening the door wider.  "Where do you mean to go? First tell me that. I'll follow and bring you back by force. I will!"  I believe that him bringing her back by force is a way of Frost portraying that they are both handling this death very hard, even though they are both dealing with it in different ways.  As far as how grief should be handled I do not think there is a right or wrong way to do it.  The person that is grieving over something has to handle it in there own way that makes them most comfortable in that specific situation.

Journal 15

The poem entitled "A Certain Lady," by Dorthy Parker is narrated by a female who is clearly in love.  He appears to be speaking to or about her lover a specific quote that speaks to this is the first few lines of the poem 'Oh, I can smile for you and tilt my head, And drink your rushing words with eager lips...' To me this is obvious love speak because I can imagine is an obvious form of being happy and in love.  At the beginning of the poem at least I like her attitude, I am someone who enjoys love and everything involved with it.  I dislike how he goes back and forth from happy to unhappy repeatedly throughout the poem.  For example, 'Oh, I can laugh and marvel, rapturous eye. And you laugh back, nor can you ever see...The thousand little deaths my heart has died.' The speaker is bi-polar in a sense going from really happy to unhappy very rapidly.  The first 22 lines of this poem would be read in more of an upbeat tone because of the love being conveyed throughout most of the poem; however, the last few lines of the poem would be read in a mischievous tone because it appears the narrator is up to no good when their significant is gone.  The speakers personality is, like I said, mischievous as well as bipolar because of how they start and then finish the poem.  

Journal 14

I would like to take this journal entry to explain my feelings behind the poem "Poetry Makes Nothing Happen?" by Julia Alvarez.  I truthfully did not know a ton about poetry or care to know a ton about poetry before starting this unit tonight.  After reading this poem it really did open my eyes to involved, if you will, poetry is in every day life even if you do not associate it to poetry.  For example, most people do not associate music with poetry, they just think of it as music and nothing more than that.  I really enjoyed how the author incorporated even the most simple tasks, like driving home, to poetry.  Most of the time when people write things to get a point across they use tragic, terrible events to make it happen, but using the simple things to contrast a few tragic events was excellent. Another aspect I enjoyed of this poem was the multiple times the author used other poems as examples as kind of an ode to that poet.   For example, "When you are Old" by William Butler Yeats and two other poets, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Elizabeth Bishop were all used in this poem and I enjoyed researching them after reading to find some more basic facts.  The poetry portion of this course is off to a great start!

Journal 13

The speaker of the poem "Poetry Makes Nothing Happen?" by Julia Alvarez is unclear. It introduces no one in particular, but does list some characters throughout the poem. For example, Mike Holmquist and May Quinn are introduced in stanza one, while Jenny Klein and Naomi Stella are introduced in stanza two, and finally Faith Chaney, Lulu Perez, and Sunghee Chen are introduced in the final stanza.   The actions from this poem are not very obvious, but they do list a few places like Laramie, Wyoming and Afghanistan. "Listening to a poem on the radio, Mike Holmquist stayed awake on his drive home from Laramie..." (Lines 1-2).  "While troops dropped down into Afghanistan in the living room..." (Lines 15-16).  Those are the only concrete locations mentioned in this poem it is hard to tell what the exact significance these two locations but Afghanistan is a place of struggle and war so I believe they are trying to use place that is ordinary, and another that is more known and significant.

I believe this poem is trying to get the point across that poetry is everywhere and is with people in any kind of situation.  Whether it is music, reading, or poetry itself it is literally everywhere.  From singing and dancing, to sitting down and just reading you cannot escape it.  Ultimately I believe that is what the author is trying to do in this poem because she uses examples of the gentleman driving home and the poetry keeping him awake, and the lady using poetry to make the somber news of getting cancer easier, and finally the poetry making the three characters introduced at the top of the third stanza see the world in a different way.  Truthfully I think that this is what the author is trying to establish and very much does so.

Journal 12

Queenie,

I am writing this letter to apologize for the actions of my (former) manager the other day.  He was rude and disrespectful and had no business saying those rude comments about your clothing when you were only in the store to pick up a snack.  I also wanted to thank you for finally giving me an excuse to quit that terrible job, it was monotonous and boring and I should have hung up the apron months ago! I also would like to take this opportunity to say that you are one good looking gal.  The moment you set foot in that store you had my eye and could not take my eyes off you.  The real question is, do you feel the same way about me? I think we should go out sometime for maybe something more than a Herring Snack in Pure Sour Cream?  If you are into me (which why wouldn't you be, I mean come on I am awesome) reply to this letter or come to the address on the envelop,

Sincerely,

The Narrator

Journal 11

In "A & P" there is a specific point at the end of the story that the narrator turns the corner from innocence to a more grown up fashion.  On page 152 he uses the manager getting upset with the girls that he finds attractive to "grow up" in a sense.  He gets all riled up that the manager is embarrassing the girls for not wearing enough clothing. I think that in this story that the label "coming of age" is an accurate label.  I believe that at some point in life you have to begin to start fighting for what you believe is right, in this story he believes that the manager is wrong in how he is treating them and does what HE thinks is right to stand up or them.  The ramifications may not always be the best thing for you, but sometimes you have to just do what is right for you. 

In the second story for the week I believe that the narrator does not have as much of a "coming of age" nor does she really mature throughout the story.  In my opinion, it is kind of unclear how she changes at all in the story.  In fact, one could argue that her maturity regresses in the story because of the last line of the story, on page 147 when she begins to cry because of being told on by her little brother.  I think that is a sign of a lack of maturity and not someone who is growing up at all.  If she were maturer there is a better chance that she would stand up for herself and voice her opinion like the narrator did in "A & P."

Journal 10

After reading "The Birth Mark" it seems like an appropriate time to talk about how imperfections are what make people who they are in some cases.  In this story the main character has a birthmark that her mad scientist of a husband wants to get rid of.  So he drums up a way to attempt to take it off, ultimately she ends up dying.  I thought for quite a while after reading and it really got me thinking about the imperfections, both physical and mental, in people and even more specifically myself.  The main thought I conceived was why try an change yourself or someone else if you already love them? If you love someone for who they are then you should not try to change a blemish on their face or any other physical impairment that causes no harm to you.  The moral of the story was that greed can leave you with nothing because look at what he did, he tried to make something perfect, and killed it.  Truthfully, I have learned something from each of these stories thus far, but this one spoke to me the most, no doubt about it!

Journal 9

After reading "A Thing in The Forest" I believe the Thing is a figment of the young girls imagination.  I believe they were searching for an adventure and ultimately found one; however, the thing represented something on a whole other level.   I believe it resembles the world at that time, scary, ugly, and destroying everything in its path. The world was deeply entrenched in World War II, it as falling apart at the seams and was being destroyed all over the map, especially in Europe.   A part of the reading that stuck out to me was it said "Its progress was apparently painful, for it moaned and whined..." This is an accurate representation of the world at that time because of how much pain and suffering everyone was in.  It also says in the story how the body of the thing was glued together like wet paper-mache, this gave the impression that it was very fragile, which everything in the world was at this time.  Overall, I believe that the two main conditions of this story are the historical condition, which was World War II and how awful of a place the world was at that time, and the feelings condition, which was how sad and painful the creature was which accurately conveyed the world during World War II.

Journal 8

Dear Mrs. Das,

I have been sitting here staring at this blank sheet of paper for what seems like days, and I still cannot wrap my mind around horrific thing you have done to your family.  You asked me to interpret your dilemma upon leaving India and I agree to write you about what I discover. I have up with one solution for you, and that is to leave your family or tell them your horrendous mistake.  They have no idea that their mother is infidel and their brother is not actually their full brother.  You have all been living a lie for too long and it is time for it to stop at once!  The mistake you have made is inexcusable and the lie you are living is making it so much worse.  It is time to let the truth come out and you must deal with the consequences.  You have a young beautiful family that needs to the truth before it is too late and the resent you forever.  

Sincerely,

Mr Kapasi. 

Journal 7

The two stories that were assigned for this week both had the use of cameras, and photography in general tied into them.  One story used photography to help unite their family, while the other had photography in it, but the family is in a lot more turmoil then it seems.  While both stories have the obvious similarities of photography is used to take pictures and both take pictures, there are also many contrasts. The similarities of photography between the two stories are essentially the fact that they are capturing moments on trips to lands they have never been (except for the dad in "A Pair of Tickets.")  People tend to take a lot of pictures on vacations and this is the case in both of these stories.  Another similarity could be the comparison of the two landscapes that are being photographed because India and China are located in the same continent.

The contrasts of the stories are very evident, in  "A Pair of Tickets," the main character uses the camera to capture very important moments in the history of her family.  Two examples that stand out to me are the pictures she takes of her father and Aiyi and at the end of the story when the sisters are all standing together and the father takes a snapshot of them.  Also, the Polaroid that June May sent the sisters of their mother.  In this story photography symbolizes the coming together of a family and how the pictures are the only things they have to remember one another.  It will probably be one of the only times they will ever see one another again and it is important to capture those moments.

In "Interpreter of Maladies," literally the polar opposite happens and the family is more chaotic and dysfunctional with a very deep dark secret.  Mr. Das has a camera with him throughout the duration of the story taking pictures of the various tourist attractions and landmarks they see, but to me it is the lack of one specific picture that tells the story of how dysfunctional their family is.  At the end of the story when Mrs. Das tells Mr. Kapasi her deep dark secret about how one of their children is illegitimate.  They were trying to take a family photo, but instead this child is attacked by a monkey and they decide to not take it.  This speaks to me in the sense that this family is so messed up on the inside that they aren't supposed to take a picture together to make them even look happy.  In my opinion, photography can capture great moments, but can also not show the whole story.

Journal 6

I truly did enjoy reading "Sonny's Blues," by James Baldwin, it was truly heartwarming to finally read a story where the troubled person in the plot line of the story doesn't get into more trouble or die at the end.  There was one thing; however,  that I would have changed in this story and that would be to give the name of the narrator which is Sonny's brother.  The whole time while reading I was waiting for the story to reveal the narrator's name.  I feel that if they would have gave this character a name it would have made the story more inviting. If I were to give this man a name it would be Julius, Julius is the name of an African American character in the movie "Remember the Titans." In this movie Julius is a person with high character and is counted on by many.  I believe that the narrator in this story is synonymous with Julius and that is why I would name that.

Journal 5

There is a problem in America that has been a problem for a long, long time.  It involves all races and walks of life and it will most likely never be defeated; that is the war on drugs.  In "Sonny's Blues," by James Baldwin Sonny is addicted to heroin, this heroin addiction ruined not only his life, but the people that were close to him as well.  Not only, did the drugs harm him as a person, but the people he hung around with were incredibly bad.  For example, the man that the narrator encounters at the beginning of the story is a very shady person.

Drugs are humongous problem in America and all over the world.  They have ripped apart families and ruined many peoples lives in general.  This short story is a prime example of how drugs can bring extreme destruction to a persons life.  Fortunately, for Sonny it appears that at the end of this story he begins to find himself in his music and away from the things that brought on his demise earlier in life.

Journal 4

The story "Why I live at the P.O." by Eudora Welty really hit home for me in a specific way.  Being the older of me and my brother I strongly relate to being second fiddle to the younger sibling at times.
"She's always had anything in the world she wanted and then she'd throw it away. Papa-Daddy gave her this gorgeous Add-a-Pearl necklace when she was eight years old and she threw it away playing baseball when she was nine, with only two pearls."

This quote from the beginning of the story was the part that really hit home to me about it, the younger sibling being spoiled and the older sibling being upset about it.  I am definitely not the only person to ever experience and won't be the last one either.  A specific example of this happened to me when I was 8 years old and my family were remodeling our house so it was a pretty big mess.  My brother (who was 5 at the time) and I both had to use the restroom so we decided to race to see who would get there first.  Well, after 5 staples in the side of his head, it was determined that I was the first one to the restroom.  To this day I know I didn't push him and he simply took a sharp turn and hit his head on the wall, but that is beside the point.  For the next 2 weeks my little brother was the king of the house, he got away with EVERYTHING! He could say mean things to me, take my things without asking, and just be a downright jerk.  This story truly hit home to me with being the older sibling and I know I can't be the only one!

Journal 3

    After reading the Edgar Allan Poe short story entitled "The Cask of Amontillado" I have decided to pose one question, and that question is: "Why?"  Why would a man seek revenge on another man in this sort of way when it was clear that at the time he regretted doing it? In the story it says: "My hear grew sick." This is why posing such a broad question is relevant because of his immediate remorse of his actions.  Why does anyone feel the need to do this to anyone no matter what they may or may not have done to them?  I find it to be very interesting that Montresor never specifies what Fortunato does to him that causes him to seek such revenge on him.  Does he not want the reader to know because Fortunato's offenses were petty and no reason for him to be killed for it? This question along with the question "Why?" are the two that I drummed up after reading this short story.

     After reading this story and thinking about it for awhile I gathered an opinion about it that makes a lot of sense to me.  In today's world a common theory is that literature and other forms of media (video games, movies, television shows, etc) are directly correlated with violence among people.  While I find that to be accurate, I also think that authors like Edgar Allan Poe and stories like this one are the direct root of violence throughout history.  Stories like these that make killing as a form of revenge so easy to do are, in my opinion, a direct link to a portion of the violence that plagues our world today.

Journal 2

The story I have chose to reflect on is Cathedral by Raymond Carter due to its interesting plot line and the odd feeling the story left me.    The story is about a blind man and a married woman who share a certain connection throughout the story.  The husband has a very harsh and poor perception of how the blind man is towards his wife. The husband is a very down trodden person who refuses to view people that are different than him as equal. I personally believe that he is a poor man, he is very simple minded and the fact that he cannot understand a blind man for what he is is disturbing.  While reading some of the other blogs by students in this course I came across a point that I find very accurate and have decided to use it, and that is "It appears that the narrator is the blind one." I found this in Arielle's blog and find it to be very accurate upon reading this story myself!

Journal 1

A book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading in the past was a book entitled "The Outsiders," by S.E Hilton.  I read this book as part of a class project in 8th grade at Watertown Middle School. I found that this book gave great insight into two very different social classes that did not like each other. It gave me a very important look into how different social classes can treat and act towards each other.  It truly is a book I will always remember because of the important lessons it taught me.  A book that I strongly disliked reading was titled "The Heart of Darkness," by Joseph Conrad.  I read it, or tried to read it, my senior year of high school for my AP Language class.  It wasn't the plot line, or the characters, or the outcome of the story that I didn't like.  It was how the book read.  It was written in 1899 so the language of the novel was terrible, and for me at least, almost impossible to follow.  It was an incredibly confusing book that I couldn't for along with whatsoever, I wouldn't recommend the book to anyone!